End-Time Prophecy

God is the only One who can predict the future—and make His predictions come true. What does He want you to know about Bible prophecies of the end times?

What does God want you to know about what the future holds—for you? What has He revealed through end-time Bible prophecy that you need to know? Let’s examine this using the standard journalistic questions, the five Ws: what, who, where, when and especially why.

What will happen in the end times?

The world will come to the brink of human annihilation before Jesus Christ returns to save us from ourselves.

When Jesus’ disciples asked about what would happen at the end of the age of man’s rule, a pivotal part of His answer was: “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:21-22).

Who and where?

These terrible events of the end times will affect everyone in every part of the earth. Thankfully, when Jesus returns to end humanity’s misrule, He will establish the Kingdom of God. Jesus Christ’s perfect rule will also spread around the entire earth to bring utopia to everyone everywhere.

When?

Wouldn’t we like to know! Ever since Jesus left, His followers have wanted to know exactly when He would come back. Part of that is because we urgently desire His Kingdom to come and end the pain and suffering. That’s why Christians pray fervently, “Your Kingdom come!”

But perhaps some of our desire can also be attributed to curiosity. We also want to be able to make wise decisions in our lives, and not knowing the timing of the most important deadline can feel unsettling.

And we have to consider another underlying reason why many want to know: We want to know how urgent we should be. If Christ’s return is very soon, we would redouble our efforts, but if it seems a long way off, the natural human tendency is to slack off.

That’s why Jesus said, “But of that day and hour no one knows” (Matthew 24:36). We must strive to always be ready, “For the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:44). Our spiritual zeal must be strong at all times.

Why?

Perhaps the most overlooked question is, why will these terrible events predicted in end times prophecy come? Because of sin. Sin is breaking God’s perfect law. This means sin is doing the opposite of God’s way of love. It is a way of selfish getting instead of selfless giving.

Sin is the cause of suffering and death and destruction, and our culture of acceptance of sin is growing worse and worse. Read Paul’s description of the toxic attitudes of the end time in 2 Timothy 3:1-5, and you will see a reflection of society today.

Once before, humanity as a whole approached the level of depravity we face today, and in love our Creator put most of humanity out of its misery in the Flood. This time, humanity’s death spiral into sin will be stopped by the return of Christ.

Even before the Flood, God’s servant Enoch was able to see the destructiveness of sin and the necessity of Christ’s return: “Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied …, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him’” (Jude 14-15).

End-time prophecy shows that humanity will be on the verge of self-destruction because of sin. But why does God give us prophecy? Because He wants us to repent—to change! Why? Because He loves us and wants us to enjoy the blessings of His way for eternity—instead of the terrible consequences of sin.

What should we do?

We should repent of our personal sins (Acts 2:38). Repentance means not only stopping sinning, but turning around and going God’s way instead. This means obeying God’s commandments and living a godly life (Revelation 14:12; 2 Peter 3:11).

Jesus also tells us to watch and pray (Luke 21:36). We must watch our own lives and be doing the things God wants us to do. And, even though we can’t know the exact day and hour, we are to also watch world events that help us see the signs of the end times.

For additional study, we recommend the articles in the section “End Times.”

For assistance in fulfilling Christ’s command to “watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36), subscribe to the Life, Hope & Truth Weekly Newsletter, which contains our World Watch Weekly section. It’s free and comes directly to your email inbox each week.

Mike Bennett is editorial content manager for the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, in the Dallas, Texas, area. He coordinates the Life, Hope & Truth website, Discern magazine and the Life, Hope & Truth Weekly Newsletter. He is also part of the Personal Correspondence team of ministers who answer questions sent to Life, Hope & Truth.